IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/mpifgd/p0083.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Choosing and successfully sustaining competitive strategies in the European pharmaceutical industry

Author

Listed:
  • Herrmann, Andrea M.

Abstract

It is a central claim of the national competitiveness literature that firms exploit the comparative advantages of their environment by choosing to pursue the product market strategy that is facilitated by national financial- and labour-market institutions. Otherwise, so goes the argument, firms are punished in that strategies receiving no institutional support are less successful and therefore not sustainable in the long run. My analyses of pharmaceutical firms in Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom challenge these arguments on the choice and success of competitive strategies. Given that different measures of strategy success do not indicate that the latter is in line with national institutional advantages, I develop an alternative explanation for the strategy choices of firms. On the basis of my qualitative interviews with managers, I argue that technological opportunities to transform inventions or imitations into marketable products are a primary concern when entrepreneurs choose their firm's strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Herrmann, Andrea M., 2008. "Choosing and successfully sustaining competitive strategies in the European pharmaceutical industry," MPIfG Discussion Paper 08/9, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:p0083
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/36508/1/595706940.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hall, Peter A. & Gingerich, Daniel W., 2004. "Varieties of Capitalism and Institutional Complementarities in the Macroeconomy," MPIfG Discussion Paper 04/5, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    2. Orsenigo, L. & Pammolli, F. & Riccaboni, Massimo, 2001. "Technological change and network dynamics: Lessons from the pharmaceutical industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 485-508, March.
    3. Amable, Bruno, 2003. "The Diversity of Modern Capitalism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199261147.
    4. Bottazzi, Giulio & Dosi, Giovanni & Lippi, Marco & Pammolli, Fabio & Riccaboni, Massimo, 2001. "Innovation and corporate growth in the evolution of the drug industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(7), pages 1161-1187, July.
    5. repec:ces:ifosdt:v::y:2005:i::p:03-42 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Fabio Pammolli & Laura Magazzini & Luigi Orsenigo, 2002. "The intensity of competition after patent expiry in pharmaceuticals. A cross-country analysis," Revue d'Économie Industrielle, Programme National Persée, vol. 99(1), pages 107-131.
    7. Herrmann, Andrea M., 2008. "One Political Economy, One Competitive Strategy?: Comparing Pharmaceutical Firms in Germany, Italy, and the UK," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199543434.
    8. Hans-Werner Sinn, 2005. "Basar-Ökonomie Deutschland - Exportweltmeister oder Schusslicht?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 58(06), pages 03-42, March.
    9. Casper, Steven & Matraves, Catherine, 2003. "Institutional frameworks and innovation in the German and UK pharmaceutical industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1865-1879, December.
    10. Herrmann, Andrea M., 2008. "On the discrepancies between macro and micro level identification of competitive strategies," MPIfG Discussion Paper 08/6, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    11. Laura Bottazzi & Marco Da Rin, 2002. "Venture capital in Europe and the financing of innovative companies [‘Robust financial contracting and the role of venture capitalists’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 17(34), pages 229-270.
    12. Gambardella, Alfonso & Orsenigo, Luigi & Pammolli, Fabio, 2000. "Global Competitiveness in Pharmaceuticals: A European Perspective," MPRA Paper 15965, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Casper, Steven & Whitley, Richard, 2004. "Managing competences in entrepreneurial technology firms: a comparative institutional analysis of Germany, Sweden and the UK," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 89-106, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gundars Kulikovskis, 2015. "Stairway to Excellence. Country Report: Latvia," JRC Research Reports JRC97530, Joint Research Centre.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Herrmann, Andrea M., 2008. "On the discrepancies between macro and micro level identification of competitive strategies," MPIfG Discussion Paper 08/6, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    2. Herrmann, Andrea M. & Peine, Alexander, 2011. "When 'national innovation system' meet 'varieties of capitalism' arguments on labour qualifications: On the skill types and scientific knowledge needed for radical and incremental product innovations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 687-701, June.
    3. Gianluca Baio & Laura Magazzini & Antonio Nicita & Fabio Pammolli & Massimo Riccaboni, 2003. "Il Decreto DL 15/04/2002, n. 63 sul Contenimento della Spesa Farmaceutica - Impatto sull'Industria e Distorsioni nel Funzionamento del Mercato," Working Papers CERM 0-2003, Competitività, Regole, Mercati (CERM).
    4. DiVito, Lori, 2012. "Institutional entrepreneurship in constructing alternative paths: A comparison of biotech hybrids," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 884-896.
    5. Bruce Rasmussen, 2010. "Innovation and Commercialisation in the Biopharmaceutical Industry," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13680.
    6. Andrea M. Herrmann, 2019. "A plea for varieties of entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 331-343, February.
    7. Selin Dilli & Niklas Elert & Andrea M. Herrmann, 2018. "Varieties of entrepreneurship: exploring the institutional foundations of different entrepreneurship types through ‘Varieties-of-Capitalism’ arguments," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 293-320, August.
    8. Tony Edwards & Paul Marginson & Anthony Ferner, 2013. "Multinational Companies in Cross-National Context: Integration, Differentiation, and the Interactions between MNCS and Nation States," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(3), pages 547-587, May.
    9. Jasiecki Krzysztof, 2018. "The strength and weaknesses of the varieties of capitalism approach: the case of Central and Eastern Europe," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 54(4), pages 328-342, December.
    10. Ahlquist, John S. & Breunig, Christian, 2009. "Country clustering in comparative political economy," MPIfG Discussion Paper 09/5, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    11. Buchen, Clemens, 2010. "Emerging economic systems in Central and Eastern Europe – a qualitative and quantitative assessment," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 37141, September.
    12. Farasat A. S. Bokhari & Franco Mariuzzo & Anna Rita Bennato, 2021. "Innovation and growth in the UK pharmaceuticals: the case of product and marketing introductions," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 603-634, June.
    13. Pammolli, Fabio & Riccaboni, Massimo, 2004. "Market Structure and Drug Innovation," MPRA Paper 16212, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Hancké, Bob & Coulter, Steve, 2013. "The German manufacturing sector unpacked: institutions, policies and future trajectories," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 56090, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Bruno Amable, 2009. "Structural reforms in Europe and the (in)coherence of institutions," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 25(1), pages 17-39, Spring.
    16. Gurneeta Vasudeva & Jennifer W. Spencer & Hildy J. Teegen, 2013. "Bringing the Institutional Context Back In: A Cross-National Comparison of Alliance Partner Selection and Knowledge Acquisition," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(2), pages 319-338, April.
    17. Reale, Filippo, 2019. "Governing innovation systems: A Parsonian social systems perspective," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    18. Angelo Kenneth S. Romasanta & Peter Sijde & Jacqueline Muijlwijk-Koezen, 2020. "Innovation in pharmaceutical R&D: mapping the research landscape," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(3), pages 1801-1832, December.
    19. Gilsing, Victor & Nooteboom, Bart, 2006. "Exploration and exploitation in innovation systems: The case of pharmaceutical biotechnology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 1-23, February.
    20. Deeg, Richard, 2005. "Complementarity and institutional change: How useful a concept?," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Institutions, States, Markets SP II 2005-21, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:p0083. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mpigfde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.